I grew up within Italian-American neighborhoods, everybody was coming into the house all the time, kids running around, that sort of stuff, so when I finally got into my own area, so to speak, to make films, I still carried on.

I grew up in the Lower East Side, an Italian American - more Sicilian, actually.

So, I have my own horse and two ponies. I grew up around horses, and that really is my passion.

I know that I come from mid-20th century America, urban, specifically downtown New York, specifically an Italian-American area, Roman Catholic - that's who I am. And a part of what I know is there's a decency to people who tried to make a living in the kind of world that was around us and also the Skid Row area of the Bowery; it impressed me.

Finally, my manager negotiated a deal where I got to produce my own records.

I got my own back.